World middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik will have to rearrange his plans this weekend—and the possible February 16, 2008 date for his rematch with Jermain Taylor.

The Ring has learned that Pavlik, who was scheduled to arrive in New York City Wednesday for this weekend’s Miguel Cotto-Shane Mosley showdown at Madison Square Garden, needed more than 100 stitches to repair an injury sustained Tuesday afternoon when Pavlik put his hands through a window while trying to repair it.

“Kelly is going to be okay,” assured Mike Pavlik, Kelly’s father. “He had an accident and suffered these little cuts all over his hands that needed at least 100 stitches. I don’t know how long it will take for Kelly to come back, but we had to change our plans to go to New York this weekend. Kelly’s hands are swollen, and he certainly won’t be able to shake anyone’s hand. The doctors also told him not to travel, especially on a plane, because the pressure could open the stitches. But he is okay.”

Pavlik, 32-0 (29), became world middleweight champion by knocking out Taylor, 27-1-1 (17), in the seventh round of a September 29 title bout at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

I thought the same thing though Swerb that this sounded a little suspicious...kind of like the Carl Pavano broken ribs deal. Knowing Kelly I wouldn't be surprised if he had a couple cold ones, before, and while fixing the window.

I saw Mike Pavlik at the gym last night and spoke to him about this. He said Kelly has 18 stitches as a result of this accident. Mike was simply amazed about the attention this story is getting and the distortion of the facts. I told him to get used to it, the scrutiny is only going to get worse. He had some observations on the state of boxing that I find interesting:

• He wasn’t so impressed with Calzaghe/Kessler. He said neither one of them were even marked up or swollen after the fight…so how hard were they actually hitting each other.

• He thinks most of the 160/168 guys are afraid of Miranda and won’t fight him and he thinks Miranda is crazy…eating road kill, etc.

• He said JT had dropped Manny Steward as a trainer…I haven’t been able to find confirmation on this though.

•Kelly is going to be speaking with the Cavs here shortly. Hopefully they get a boost from it the way the Tribe and Browns did…they certainly can use it. I hope he doesn’t shake Larry Hughes hand or get to close to him though…that has accident and broken bones written all over it! He is going to travel with OSU for the Michigan game too…that has already been well documented though.

•Finally, Kelly has some new promotional TV commercials coming out in a couple of weeks…for of all things…A WINDOW COMPANY!

Thanks for the update knuckles, good stuff, and none of it surprises me

• He wasn’t so impressed with Calzaghe/Kessler. He said neither one of them were even marked up or swollen after the fight…so how hard were they actually hitting each other.

It looked to me like Kessler had good punching power, problem is, he didn't land many power shots. Of the ones they did? Many were uppercuts, which aren't face markers.

Calzaghe doesn't hit hard, but he hits you alot. And he's hard to hit. If Calzaghe is true to just wanting to fight 2-3 more times, I'd love to see one of em against Kelly. It would be a tough fight, but man would it be entertaining.

• He thinks most of the 160/168 guys are afraid of Miranda and won’t fight him and he thinks Miranda is crazy…eating road kill, etc.

That doesn't surprise me at all. Miranda was a rising star, kicked down the ladder hard by Kelly. I think people at that point didn't realize just how good Pavlik was. Miranda is crazy, and had an insane upbringing. I expect him to rebound, and expect most of the top guys to dodge him as well.

• He said JT had dropped Manny Steward as a trainer…I haven’t been able to find confirmation on this though.

This also doesn't surprise me, and is a bad mistake by Taylor in my view. The two seemed at odds in the corner during the fight, and Steward made comments about how "he knew Jermain was done after not being able to finish Kelly in the second". Steward is tough on his fighters, but I've never seen him throw someone under the bus that badly. Especially a fighter as high profile as Taylor.

"It's like dating a woman who hates you so much she will never break up with you, even if you burn down the house every single autumn." ~ Chuck Klosterman on Browns fans relationship with the Browns

I actually think that JT dropping Manny Steward is good for JT. Granted he is a HOF trainer, but he was giving JT such questionable advice during the first fight...that Kelly couldn't keep up the pace (he could and always does), that Kelly was fading (what?), and to stay on him (and consequently at the end KPs jab) that it played right into Kelly's strategy.

I'm not convinced that Taylor was ever comfortable with Manny and their results together were so-so at best.